Harry Potter and the HalfBlood Prince
by Pinoy
Summary: While I wait 'maddeningly' to July 16, I've made my own version of Rowling's sixth chef-d'oeuvre. Hope y'all like it!


Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

By Pinoy

Chapter 1

(Reincarnated Dursleys)

Number 4. Privet Drive. A walrus mustache man, his beefy arms around a horse-jawed woman with her dull deep brown eyes fixed on a giant SONY WEGA wide screen. Their son, an enormous boy his age, sat on an adjacent flowery-draped couch and was surprisingly watching the seven o'clock news with them.

This family-goodie scene looked very unusual indeed to a skinny, black-haired, soon-to-be sixteen year-old who stood at the foot of a slightly dusty staircase; the rim of his glasses twitching slightly on a faint ripple of self-made wrinkles just below his lightning-shaped scar. The same scar which made him the talk of his town since he started attending what his uncle calls 'madhouse for a school'.

It had been a week already since he was last fetched by the Dursleys at Platform 9 and ¾ at the end of his fifth year at Hogwarts, where one of his professors, Mad-eye Moody, emphatically warned Uncle Vernon about maltreating Harry.

_Maybe, this is what this is all about_, he pondered lackadaisically. _All these not-having-been-talked to week's just a result of the Dursleys' fear of Moody's ' if we get any hint that Potter's been mistreated in any way, you'll have us to answer to ' threats. It feels really weird though. _

"Harry dear," Aunt Petunia's unusually motherly voice didn't sound quite right to him, "why don't you sit here beside me so you can watch the news properly?"

Harry was stunned. He could not believe hearing Aunt Petunia inviting him to sit beside her.

"Are you sure there'll be Voldemort-related news on TV soon? Why, we've been watching the news for more than a week already."

_Is this really my mother's sister talking? Am I in an alternate universe or something? _ Pernicious thoughts befogged his already confused mind hidden beneath a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. He still couldn't figure out whether these people who used to make his life a living hell were just faking it or did they really have sudden change of hearts. _Maybe, they have finally seen my side? Perhaps, they have finally agreed to give in to the idea that I'm a wizard fighting a noble cause to protect both the wizarding world and the muggles' from the real threat of Volde-- hmm, Volemort's even spoken of here without people shuddering in fear. _Harry happily smiled at these musings as he awkwardly sat beside his Aunt Petunia. _Is this really for real? Am I supposed to feel love for these people now? _He glanced from the slim woman beside him to his obese cousin then to his walrus-faced Uncle Vernon. Funny how they seemed all too focused on the news all of a sudden. Eventually though, this did not seem to matter to Harry anymore as he was as eager to see Voldemort on TV as his reincarnated relatives were. The news went from George Bush to the weather but neither the Dark Lord nor his Death Eaters made any appearance.

"Oh well," Uncle Vernon heaved a lengthy sigh of relief as he pulled his overly-sagging body from the flowery-draped couch, "at least Voldemut's not ruining such a lovely evening. What do you reckon we go for a late night movie. I heard they're playing that Star Wars movie already."

"That'll be great!" Harry exclaimed, though he felt a bit ashamed saying it. _Funny, _he said to himself, _I've never ever been to the movies before. They never let me. And now Uncle Vernon's inviting me to watch with them. This is just so surreal! _

"Harry, you have to stay," Uncle Vernon bellowed. "Someone's gotta guard the house while we're gone."

_I knew it! I knew it was just damn to good to be true! _Harry's face suddenly turned ashen. _The Dursleys --- nice to me? Ha! What a big joke ... what a big, big --_

"Gotcha!" Uncle Vernon gave a house-sized hearty laugh. "Of course, you're coming with us. You're family. Besides who's gonna protect us if that Voldemart's gonna show up?"

"Yeah," Dudley remarked, putting his stuffy arms around Harry, "and who's gonna save from those demensters again? Thanx cous."

Cous? Dudley's calling me cous? A sheepish grin slightly swelled over his pallid cheeks. And Uncle Vernon's calling me family? Wow!

"Well, wha'r we waiting for?" Uncle Vernon blurted, a genuine smile spreading his beefy mustache.

"Yeah!" Dudley yelped, jumping from his seat to join his father rush towards the door.

Harry looked at Aunt Petunia who was making a last-minute check-up of the living room. Carefully, he sprung from the couch and approached her from behind.

"Aunt Petunia," he began cautiously, "why – why are you all --" His words seemed to have stuck like glue on the tip of his tongue.

"Why are we all being nice to you all of a sudden?" She finished his question for him. "Well," she paused, shifting her gaze slightly to her right, then returned it to meet Harry's bright eyes, "let's just say that I'm tired of fending off my sister's memory. I can no longer deny your heritage – that heritage which runs in my veins. So I've convinced your uncle and Dudley to stop all these pretenses and accept what we've tried to ignore for so long."

"You're not mad at my mother anymore?"

"You're mother was difficult not be loved. Though I disapproved of her 'skills' or should I say I envied them, she was the kindest and sweetest sister I've ever known."

Harry's right checks curled slightly; his fresh-leaf green eyes twinkled then suddenly drooped down as if trying to see with his mind's eye how his mother would have looked like when she was his Aunt Petunia's younger sister.

"H—arry," his aunt's shaky voice cut his brief trance, "I, I-m really-"

Having seen the tears welling over Aunt Petunia's deep-seated dark eyes, Harry instinctively put his arms around her and said, "It's alright, Aunt Petunia. What's important to me now is having an aunt accepting me as I am."

"Don't worry Harry, " Aunt Petunia sighed, "from now on, I'm gonna make it up to you."

HONK! HONK! The slightly annoying sound of Uncle Vernon's volks cut their brief episode.

"Well, we've better hurry up," Aunt Petunia pretended a faint smile.

Harry half-excitedly nodded as he accompanied his aunt towards the door.

Chapter 2

(Spinners End)

Sitting beside his cousin, Dudley, Harry watched Magnolia Crescent fade from view as Uncle Vernon's car wheeled into Magnolia Road, and headed toward the darkening play park. He stuck his head out of the open right window to feel the cool breeze of the night air rushed through his thick hair; wanderlust in his twinkling eyes as they feasted on the backdrop of a million winking stars against a cloudless canvass.

"Great night, huh?" Dudley peered though Harry's window.

"Yeah, great night!"

"So many stars and look," Dudley blurted, pointing his huge finger nearly hitting Harry's face, "it's a shooting star!"

"Yes , and there's another!" Harry replied, pointing his own finger to the right. "And --" Something stopped him. He narrowed his eyes like he would a telescope to get a clearer picture of what he caught a glimpse at.

"What is it, Harry?"

"I thought I just saw --" Harry paused, his eyes still probing the starry, starry night, "never mind."

"What?"

"Forget it, Dudley. Probably just --"

"DEMINSTRELS!" Dudley barked, his eyes bulging with fear at the specters that suddenly appeared behind his father's car. "Lots of 'em. DEMONSTERS!"

The blue volks swerved frantically following Uncle Vernon's trembling hands; Harry had difficultly retrieving his wand from his pocket (as anybody who was being rocked violently from side to side with an obese cousin). He had it just in time as a couple of dementors clung to Uncle Vernon's vehicle; their mouths wide open like a putrid-smelling funnel. Harry knew what they were set to do; how could he not when, two years ago, he had the privilege of having his soul sucked up by these horrible creatures; the dead flesh lining around the insides of their orifices, throbbing hungrily as they begin their soul-sucking kiss, is enough to make one faint already. But Harry also knew what he should do: all he needed was a flick of his want and utter the incantation ...

EXPECTO PATRONUM!

"Huh! Who said that?" Harry asked, bewildered within a blinding canopy of esoteric white light that usually ensues after the spell is chanted. "That wasn't me doing the --"

"Harry," a familiar voice spoke from his right, "you alright?"

"Lupin!" Harry excitedly exclaimed. "How'd you – wooh ..."

The frantic maneuvers of Uncle Vernon didn't yet stop. He seemed determined to still outrun the gruesome figure flying low alongside his window though he did no dare to look who it was.

"That's enough, Dursley!" A deeply coarse voice growled, "I said that's enough!" Uncle Vernon turned to look who was commanding him and saw a sinister looking wizard, his bowler hat pulled low over his magical eye, his gnarled hands clutching the long staff of his broom, his body wrapped in a voluminous traveling cloak.

"It's al—right – Uncle – Ver – non," Harry's words swiveled with the car, "it's just Professor Moody." Harry's hand over Uncle Vernon's right shoulder seemed to have calmed Uncle Vernon down as he slowly returned driving back to normal. Indeed, he soon recognized that it was the same wizard with the sinisterly revolving magical eye who made him leapt backward in horror and collided painfully with a luggage trolley last end of school term at Platform 9 ¾.

"Dursley," Moody growled again, "follow me!"

Uncle Vernon looked with dropped jaws as Mad Eye Moody zoomed past him and positioned his broom in front of Uncle Vernon's car.

"Are you sure about these people, Harry?" Uncle Vernon asked, looking at Harry's reflection in the top mirror.

"With my life, Uncle Vernon."

"If you say so," Uncle Vernon replied, his grip a lot firmer now on the handles.

Harry looked around and realized that the same people who guarded him to the Burrow last year were all here: violet-haired Tonks, tall and black Kingsley Shacklebolt, wheezy-voiced Dedalus Diggle, stately-looking Emily Vance, and pink-headed Hestia Jones.

"Lupin," Harry shouted, his arms on the car's blue covered door, "what if a muggle's gonna see us?"

"Let's hope not or --" Just as Harry expected, a white-helmeted motorist zoomed past them, his gaze absentmindedly following Moody and company's broom-gliding. Poor muggle! He did not know he was heading for a direct hit at a nearby tree.

"Tonks, you'd better --"

"I got it Remus, don't worry. " Said Tonks as she swiveled and followed the muggle.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked Lupin.

"Somewhere safe," Lupin replied. "Somewhere Voldemort can't reach you and the Dursleys."

"Where is that?"

"I'll tell you later. Meanwhile, let's keep our eyes peeled for --" Lupin stopped, his thick brows knitted closely as he suddenly pointed at , "THEM!"

Harry looked at where Lupin was pointing and saw a squadron of thick black overcoats diving towards them.

"Death-Eaters!" Moody grunted, his magical eye revolving like a huge marble. "EVERYONE, HOLD YOUR POSTS! DON'T LET THEM NEAR DURSLEY'S CAR!"

Harry's heart thumped loudly as he held out his wand. _This is it_, he thought as he tried not to wink an eye even for an instant.


End file.
